ICYouth: Falling in Love (Makenna)

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By Makenna Nahorniak

People really like to fall in love. We like the pull of gravity, we like the feeling of weightlessness, and we like the safety found in the comfort of deep affection and irrefutable adoration. Society thrives on red roses and slow songs, hoping to feel a small fraction of the immeasurable love that is consistently poured over us by the Lord. We like to be in love, but we hesitate to fall in love with the King.

There is much to be said about the love of God- its width, its depth, its height. It is real. It’s not like the storybooks. It’s so much better. It is in fact, a love that cannot be experienced apart from Him because it is so spectacularly unquenchable, abundantly satisfactory and entirely unmatchable that no earthly love has a shot at measuring up.

It doesn’t even come close. If love is so desperately coveted in a world so filled with adoration-seekers, why is the one love so bottomless and fathomless often pushed aside as if it weren’t so strikingly beautiful? And why does that love- that calls to us- demanding full attention, receive so little in return?

The truth is, His love demands amazement. It instigates captivation.

Captivation comes from being small before the Lord- when we allow ourselves to see God as He is- in all of His awe-inspiring majesty. Then we crumble and fall down at His feet, and we love dearly and truly.

I won’t spoon-feed you a million reasons to fall in love with Him. You don’t need me to persuade you. He speaks for Himself. The life-breathing, replenishing and accurate Word of God will articulate His character. Just look outside your window; the sun in the sky is the work of His hand. Or look at your own body; your beating heart was woven together by the same hands that carved the Grand Canyon. He is creative. And He reaches for you. It’s time to reach back. Let’s fall in love.

And what does it mean to fall but to descend freely by the force of gravity.

Freely. Without holding back. It’s letting go.

Show up with a wide-open jaw. Let it hit the floor. Just be there. It’s time to be present with Him. You will probably fall in love. His love has a way of consuming.

Let that love infiltrate your being. Let it be the oxygen in your lungs, the blood that pumps through your veins. Let Him be the lifeline, the only worthy cause. Ditch it all, and simply fall. You can certainly let those walls that have kept you away from this lavish love crumble. They can be destroyed. The Lord is in the business of remaking. His love leaves no room for barriers. His love leaves no room for fear.

Lamentations 3:22-26 says, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in Him.’ The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”

It won’t run out; it won’t leave you; it remains. His love is enough and it is better than life. It doesn’t get any sweeter than that. His love demands loving back.

He is jealous for our hearts.

Let’s fall in love.

Makenna Nahorniak is a junior at Christian Life School. She enjoys leading worship, singing, reading, writing and using her words to encourage others’ hearts.